My Reading

Bookish Events and Happenings

I feel like I may have overcommitted just a tiny bit to reading related projects this summer.

1. I signed up to join an NCTE online book group that will be reading a new book called Teaching Reading with YA Literature: Complex Texts, Complex Lives. Doesn't that sound right up my teacher/reader alley?

2. I also signed up for the BookLove foundation's first summer reading group. We will be reading Crossover and A Prayer for Owen Meany, both re-reads for me, as well as a professional book I've been wanting to read called Disrupting Thinking and The Hate U Give, which I am super excited about as well. Two things I already love about this group: We joined for a small fee, which gets applied to funding other classroom libraries, and the discussion of each book is going to happen using different methods we can adapt for our own classroom reading/discussion work.

3. I'm still hoping to work with a colleague in the Seattle area to design a Pacific NW NerdCamp, bringing teachers, school librarians, authors and illustrators together. That's a BIG one, so we'll see how it turns out.

4. I've gotta push for funding for the conference I'm going to next fall, keep in touch with the group I'm presenting with, and work up materials for my part of the presentation.

5. I want to either redesign this blog so there are clear "reader" and "teacher" areas OR start a blog that I can use with my students.

Oh, and I want to read a bunch. And relax. So we'll see how much of this I actually DO.

On the Blog

I took a two week hiatus, so I only have eight posts this month. And I'm okay with that. The day I had a guest post up on the Nerdy Book Blog, I got a bunch of visitors, a couple of new followers, and my first ever tweets of my work by strangers. So that was cool, especially since the topic of that post (non-traditional reading material for kids who think they hate reading) is pretty close to what I said I'd discuss at my table group in our presentation next fall. Which makes me a published expert on the topic, right?

IRL

We are in the final few weeks of school, the weather FINALLY got better, and students are losing their ever-lovin' minds. The Winemaker and his partner won the regional bridge tournament for their bracket and are headed to nationals in Canada this summer, and I am super proud of him. We hosted a visitor from Latvia for a week. He brought us candy and liquor that made me deeply nostalgic, and we showed him around the area. We spent a lovely Sunday at the beach over Memorial Day weekend, but I fell over about an hour before we left and kind of smashed my face up. (Did I ever tell you about the time I was in first grade when I fell over walking into school and broke my nose? I haven't changed much.)

I am an unabashed lover of summer, so the improved weather, longer days, and looming vacation are all making me happy down to my newly-painted-for-sandal-weather toes. I hope you have things to look forward to as well.

My monthly summaries are always linked to the Monthly Wrap-Up Round-Up on Feed Your Fiction Addiction, along with many other terrific blogs' monthly reflections. Nicole usually puts together a fun scavenger hunt giveaway too, so go check it out!

Have you read her other books? I really liked the first two in the trilogy but stalled out on the third one. She just has a really ornate writing style that I think I got burned out on, but was able to get into again for this one.

I finished reading Ramona Blue last night.....LOVE!!!!! I think you will also love The Hate U Give - such a powerful read! I'm going to check out the Book Love Foundations summer reading groups - I'm interested!

Sounds like you've got yourself really well booked. I hope that everything comes together for your NerdCamp because that sounds like great fun! And I'm happy for you that your guest post was so successful!

Always a Reader

About Me

My name is Wendy, and I am a lifelong devourer of books. I'm also a middle school reading teacher. I read a bunch of YA (especially contemporaries and fantasy), occasionally finding time for adult mysteries or literary fiction. I live with my husband and two kids in a suburb of Portland, Oregon.